


Golden

by especiallythezefronposter



Series: Equals [9]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-31
Updated: 2014-05-31
Packaged: 2018-01-27 18:08:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1718651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/especiallythezefronposter/pseuds/especiallythezefronposter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint and Loki are on a mission and when some of the other Avengers jump in to help, Thor and Loki get a chance to get some things settled.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Golden

**Author's Note:**

> I really, honestly don't know why I keep adding OCs or why I like them so much, but anyway, you should read the other works in the series first. You could try to read this as a stand alone, but there's some names and mentions of events that you won't really get. Enjoy!

He was perched on a rooftop somewhere outside New York with Clint next to him, sniper-gun ready and eyes on the crowd below. Loki was scanning the crowd, too, as he was expected to recognize the thief they were trying to catch first. 

The woman had been stealing both artworks and human organs all around the United States since two years ago and managed to vanish from the crime scene without a trace every time. The only one that had already seen her except for a few security cameras was Loki.

'Why don't you use your magic?', Clint asked.

Loki looked up at him for a brief moment, keeping track of the moving mass of bodies by feeling their presences, something he could do even without looking. After their swift encounter, Loki would recognize the thief's presence even easier than her face. 'What?'

Clint was still looking down. 'Warming your hands, why don't you do it with magic?'

'Magic is a dangerous thing to rely on. I know far too many people that have the power to take it away from me.'

Clint nodded and remained silent for a long time, opening his mouth to speak multiple times, but changing his mind before anything came out. Eventually he muttered: 'I still don't get why Tony couldn't make these darts compatible for a bow.'

Loki smiled and rolled his eyes, then focused them on a woman that was crossing the street, a steaming cup of coffee and a shopping bag in hand. 'That's her,' he said softly, as if she would hear them from two storeys below. 'Red hair, coffee, sunglasses.'

Clint aimed his gun at her. Maria Hill's voice came through the comm as Loki raised his hand and the woman disappeared from every passer-by's view and memory. 'Do you have her shielded?'

'Yes.'

'Okay, Clint, you are clear.'

The gun was silent and the dart landed exactly where it was supposed to: right through the woman's thin black scarf and into the skin of her neck. She fell, but the people around her walked on as if she wasn't there. Loki made sure that they wouldn't remember why they stepped around the spot where the woman was lying unconsciously, or that they saw the doors of a van open without anyone touching them when the ground team, that was also under Loki's guard, came to carry the woman into the van that was parked not that far away at the side of the road.

When they were all inside, Maria gave Loki clearance to drop the spell and he sighed softly, checking if any of the passer-bys had noticed anything strange.

Meanwhile, Clint had taken apart his gun and put it away in a harmless-looking backpack that he slung over his shoulder. They took the stairs, exited the building and stepped into the van, that started to move as soon as Loki shut the door.

-

The thief didn't stay unconscious for long. There was enough time to take her to a S.H.I.E.L.D. base near Stark Tower - or now Avengers Tower, as everyone seemed to be calling it - but halfway through their debrief with Hill, an agent came in to tell them that she was awake.

Hill didn't look at them while she talked, but scribbled something on a formal-looking piece of paper. 'We have a Thor-proof cell now. I put her in there, just to be sure. She doesn't seem all that violent, but maybe her tricks won't work in there. I'm pretty sure you two can handle her. You,' she said, shooting Clint a glance. 'have the interrogation skills and' she switched her focus to Loki before looking down at her papers again. 'if she happens to get out you jump in. Just be quiet and threatening until that happens. We'll finish this later,' she said, waving them of.

They followed the agent that had come to get them through the hallway.

'Did Hill just call a girl that cuts kidneys out of living people's bodies 'not too violent'?', Clint asked dully.

Loki smiled slightly. 'She did put her in a god-proof cell.'

'Her name is Sylvia Sommers, according to the ID she had on her. It doesn't look fake, but I guess that doesn't say much, since she's a master thief and all. This way,' the agent said. He held open a door at the left of the hallway for them and wished them good luck. When he asked if they wanted something to drink, they declined and he left.

The room they entered was brightly lit and painted grey-blue. There was a silvery table with a couple of chairs and Clint dragged one to the furthest wall, that was made out of thick glass. Sylvia was at the other side, sitting cross-legged and looking at them boredly. She was still wearing her sunglasses.

A few feet away from the glass, Clint set down his chair, turning it so he could lean his arms on the back and still look at the woman. Loki remained standing next to him.

'What agency are you from?', Sylvia asked.

'S.H.I.E.L.D.,' Clint said. 'Who do you work for?'

'Myself.' She seemed to get the game. 'Why is S.H.I.E.L.D. even interested in me?'

'You seem to have a talent for disappearing. Why do you steal human organs and art?'

She leaned back, stretching her legs and putting her hands behind her as if she was relaxing. 'Also jewellery, on occasion. And I do so because it keeps me in a nice hotel suite and Chanel perfume. Are you going to experiment on me?'

'My friend here has superpowers, too,' Clint said, gesturing at Loki. 'No one ever tried to do experiments on him. Even if they try, you're under his protection and mine. He's way more powerful than anyone that will try to mess with you.'

'He's the one from New York, with the invasion and all.' She was studying Loki with curiosity. 'Loki.' She looked back at Clint. 'And you're Clint Barton, Hawkeye form the Avengers. What did you shoot me with?'

'A pretty strong sedative, not dangerous. You'll feel dizzy for a half an hour or so, and sleepy for a couple more, but that's it, I think. So now about that power of yours, how did you get it?'

'I got shot. A lot of things happened at the same time, but I'm pretty sure that's when it started. What will happen when I don't want to answer a question?'

'Then I'll ask again. How does your power work?'

The lamps flickered on and off and the woman suddenly turned bright red. She was breathing heavily and sitting a few centimetres away from where she had been sitting before. A wave of energy passed through Loki.

Loki took a step back as everything clicked into place. 'Clint? Maybe we should talk outside.'

Clint followed Loki to the hall. 'She manipulates time,' Loki said when the door shut behind them.

'You mean that the light flickering and the turning red -'

'She might've stopped time to try and find a way to escape. No success, evidently, but it explains why she got away so easily anywhere else.'

'I want a job where manipulating time wouldn't be considered as a plausible explanation for anything.' He dragged a hand through his hair. 'We should tell Hill. We'll need Bruce and Tony on this.'

There was a silence. 'And Thor. Her power isn't exactly like electricity, unless electricity has time-altering capacities that I don't know of, but it's close. Thor will still be able to control it to some measure.'

'Are you sure?', Clint asked, with a worried look that he usually reserved for things concerning Natasha, Fred or Tyra.

Loki didn't look at him. 'Yes. He's a quick learner.'

'You know that's not what I mean.'

Loki rolled his eyes. 'I won't turn into a raging psychopath if you let me come near Thor, if that's what you're asking.'

Clint smiled slightly and patted Loki's shoulder before he started walking back to Maria's office.

-

Tony kept asking Sylvia if she would take of her sunglasses and Bruce kept telling him not to. Clint had run off half an hour ago, saying he was getting coffee and Thor was standing at the door of the cell, eating a donut.

Loki was leaning against the glass wall and watching everything but Thor. He had better things to worry about. 

They had managed to convince Sylvia that it was in her best interest to let Bruce and Tony examine her, because they might discover ways to stabilize her powers. Still he could hear how quick her heartbeat was, even when she seemed calm on the outside. It had taken some time before she had let Bruce take her blood and asking for anything else might be pushing her too far. Loki was convinced that Thor would know when she stopped time, but that didn't mean he could do anything about it and keep her from getting away.

Almost two hours had passed when Sylvia said something that wasn't 'don't touch my glasses' or a quick answer to a yes-or-no question. Clint had joined them and was sitting beside Thor. Her eyes were on him when she spoke. 'I made some enemies, you know, with the weird power and all. They are the ones that shot me, so you can imagine they think pretty high of themselves because of what I...' For a moment she seemed disgusted with herself. 'have become. They think I'm their property because they tried to kill me and made me into this instead.' Her eyes drifted to the door. 'They're arrogant bastards. They won't let themselves be stopped by two gods and two humans. Even when the Hulk comes out to play... I've seen what they can do, there will be damage, there will be loss. Ten minutes, tops, then they'll be here.'

'This is the safest -' Clint started, standing up and pushing away from the wall.

'Why the hell are you only telling us now?', Tony said at the same time.

Sylvia was shaking her head at Clint. 'Explosions are their strongest weapon. If they get in here, no one is getting out. They won't even find your teeth.' Then she looked at Tony. 'If I gave you two hours to think of a way to deal with me, you'd lock me up somewhere below the ground and they'd still get to me. If you only have a few minutes, the odds are in _my_ favor.'

'So what do you want us to do?', Tony asked.

'Let me go. I've been doing this for two years. I'll be fine.'

'You'll be fine cutting hearts out of people's chests,' Bruce noted softly, taking of his glasses and absently cleaning them with the hem of his shirt.

'The black market's everywhere. You can harvest and sell organs on the run. I could go work in a coffee shop, too, if you want me to do something ethical, but I don't think the boss will appreciate it if I leave for Mexico after two days and never come back. He's not going to keep paying me either.'

'Are you saying you'll stop stealing organs if we pay you?', Tony asked, narrowing his eyes.

'I'm saying I'm not stopping.' She crossed her arms.

'That's bullshit. You know who I am, right?'

'That's a good example of a stupid question. You're giving me the opportunity to day an awful lot of bad things about you.'

He rolled his eyes. 'Thanks, dad. The right answer was that I'm a billionaire, _and_ the one who does the decision-making when Captain Tight Pants isn't around, so I decide that Thor's going with you to supervise and protect you and that I'll do you your finances from now on. No organ-stealing, no art-theft and no occasional picking jewellery of people's bodies.'

Her arms dropped to her sides. 'I want Loki to come, too.'

There was a silence in which Bruce, Tony and Clint looked at each other uncomfortably. Loki was looking at Thor and Thor was pretending not to notice.

'Why?', Clint asked eventually.

' _You_ promised he'd protect me, remember?'

Thor stepped away from the wall. 'I can sense an astonishing amount of electric energy coming this way. They're on the corner of the street and advancing rapidly. We only have a couple of minutes.'

Tony shrugged. 'I don't have anything to say over Loki. He can come if he wants.'

-

It wasn't hard to avoid two angry twins with a big amount of ingenious electronic bombs at their disposal if you could teleport. Loki needed something as powerful as the Tesseract to travel through Realms, but he didn't need help to walk out of the building - so that the twins could see them disappear and would know that there was no reason to waste time destroying the S.H.I.E.L.D.-base - and then transport himself, Sylvia and Thor to London.

It was raining heavily, but Tony had given them a credit card that got them three suites in an expensive hotel fast enough. Loki left Sylvia alone with a joke about stealing his organs and a soft 'goodnight' and then retreated to his own room, where he made a call to explain the whole situation to Tyra. 

He had barely put down his phone when there was a knock on the door. He knew it was Thor. He could hear how his heartbeat fluttered when no answer came. Then Loki said, 'Come in.' and his pulse stammered again. The door opened too quickly.

Thor softly shut it behind himself.

Loki had been sitting on the bed, but stood up and walked over to the lounge. 'Sit,' he told Thor, waving vaguely at an armchair. He sat down on the couch himself, pulling up his legs. 'What do you want to talk about?'

He waved his hand again and two glasses of red wine appeared on the coffee table. 'Have a drink,' he told Thor softly, taking his own glass.

Thor frowned at him. 'I'm sorry for what I did, I truly am. There were more... gracious ways to deal with our situation, I shouldn't have let myself be led by one emotion.'

Loki took a sip of his wine. 'What was that emotion, Thor?'

Thor didn't look at him. 'Anger.'

'There's no need to apologize. It's been more than a year. If I hadn't forgiven you yet , you would've noticed. If I recall correctly, I’ve never been very subtle about holding grudges.'

Thor smiled. 'You mean that time I hid a book that you hadn't finished yet and you made my clothes disappear at a ball?'

'Yeah. You would've been naked at the Chiauri Invasion Memorial Service if I was mad at you.'

'So we're... even?'

'Almost. First I want you to tell me what memories I'm missing.'

'You're missing memories?'

'Don't play stupid, Thor. The temporary memory loss was only a side effect and a good way to cover up for the memories you actually took away. I have the right to know what they are about.'

Thor finally picked up his own glass of wine and took a sip, looking at Loki over the rim of his glass. 'You haven't guessed yet?'

'Of course I have. Tyra has been dropping hints. A lot of them. I just want to hear it from you.' He was silent for a moment. 'In the present tense,' he added then.

Thor closed his eyes and then looked right at Loki. 'I love you,' he said softly.

That caught Loki of guard. He had expected to hear 'you love me', had thought this had all started with him - his love, his fear of rejection. He should've known it had always been the both of them.

He looked at his glass. The dark wine reminded him of blood, but even his blood he didn't share with Thor. They had had nothing in common, until Loki started wearing that awful helmet and they both had heads that were golden like the sun. The only difference had been that Thor had naturally looked like that, his hair fairer than any metal Loki could conjure, whilst whatever Loki did, the light of his own star would always be hiding darkness.

He smiled slightly, set his glass down and stretched his had to take Thor's. He put their hands beside one another and softly stoked the thin band of gold around Thor's ring finger. He had one of his own. The memory of putting it on was one Thor had erased, but he knew that he had never taken it of after that. 'Gold had always been the only thing we had in common, isn't it? My skin is blue and yours is pink, my hair is black and yours is blonde, my eyes are green and yours are blue but these rings...' He ticked his ring against Thor's and narrowed his eyes as he looked at him. 'Were we married?'

Thor looked down and shook his head. 'We made a promise and we gave one another a ring, but it was not like a mortal wedding… I was going to war and Odin wouldn't let you come. You were angry and I was trying not to let you infuriate me.' He chuckled softly. 'And failing. We were fighting and right before I left you kissed me like...' He shook his head. 'Then you suddenly had those rings in your hand. You made me promise not to die and after that we made every important promise on these.' his fingertips touched Loki's hand gently.

'It stopped at some point. All of it...' He shook his head, trying to make sense of his memories. 'I don't get it. It starts again.'

'You thought it was a good idea to wipe our memories and start over, a few decades ago. Well, that was the most recent time. It's not uncommon for people with our lifespan to erase everything but vital information and start again. It wasn't very uncommon for us, either. The memories come back in the end and I didn't mind falling in love with you again.' Thor was smiling, but it had something sad to it. 'We could do that again, you know, erase everything, start over.'

Loki shook his head, noticing that he was still holding Thor's hand. He considered letting go, but grabbed it a little tighter instead. 'You have your family now, Thor, and I have mine. If you still want to we can do it in a century or two.' His fingers found Thor's ring. 'Promise.'

Thor smiled at him. 'Promise.'

'We should go to bed now. Tomorrow we'll have to figure out what we’re going to do.’

Thor kissed his forehead before returning to his own room.


End file.
